Methods and Systems for Interactive User Interface Objects

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for interactive user interface objects are provided. The user interface allows for users to manipulate different objects represented by icons within a user interface, such as that of an iPhone or iPad or other touch screen devices. Users may bump objects together, flick one object towards another, bump an object against the edge of a screen, flick an object towards a certain area such as a dock, or otherwise manipulate the objects. The user&#39;s actions or manipulations of objects may result in an action by the objects or may have no effect. Depending on the compatibility of objects, the objects may be neutral towards one another, may attract each other, or may repel. The objects that attract may share content or communicate with each other via a one-time interaction, or may establish links or connections with each other that enable longer term communication or broadcasts that occur upon pre-determined triggers.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application is a continuation application U.S. Patent ApplicationSer. No. 13/076,370 filed on Mar. 30, 2011, which claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 61/319,840, filed on Mar. 31, 2010,each of which is entirely incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Application users are often forced to interact with content and objectsleveraging a static, mechanical methodology. While the underlyingcontent or objects typically provide utility and value to theapplication user, the interface provided is not typically engaging,playful, fun or based on any specific scientific properties.

Today's application users deserve more in their consumption ofmultimedia, including content and objects, and the application usersshould be able to be as engaged by the user interface and experienceprovided for navigating and interacting with the application as theunderlying content and objects themselves.

What is needed is a dynamic, interactive interface based on math,science and physics that allows for interoperability and connectionsbetween applications or objects in a multi-touch interface where theuser engagement is as core to the underlying experience as the contentand objects themselves.

SUMMARY

The invention provides systems and methods for interactive userinterface objects. Various aspects of the invention described herein maybe applied to any of the particular applications set forth below. Theinvention may be applied as a standalone system or as a component of anintegrated software solution for programmable devices and theirframeworks. The invention can be optionally integrated into existingbusiness and processes seamlessly. It shall be understood that differentaspects of the invention can be appreciated individually, collectivelyor in combination with each other.

In one aspect, a user interface for displaying interoperability ofobjects may include a graphical depiction of at least one object on adisplay screen; input variables for receiving inputs from a user toassociate the at least one object with a second object; a graphicaldepiction of an action based on an interoperability dynamic of the atleast one object with the second object. The interoperability dynamicmay be to repel, attract or remain neutral.

Other goals and advantages of the invention will be further appreciatedand understood when considered in conjunction with the followingdescription and accompanying drawings. While the following descriptionmay contain specific details describing particular embodiments of theinvention, this should not be construed as limitations to the scope ofthe invention but rather as an exemplification of a preferredembodiment. For each aspect of the invention, many variations arepossible as suggested herein that are known to those of ordinary skillin the art. A variety of changes and modifications can be made withinthe scope of the invention without departing from the spirit thereof.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

All publications, patents, and patent applications mentioned in thisspecification are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent asif each individual publication, patent, or patent application wasspecifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity inthe appended claims. A better understanding of the features andadvantages of the present invention will be obtained by reference to thefollowing detailed description that sets forth illustrative embodiments,in which the principles of the invention are utilized, and theaccompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a decision tree of the interaction ofobjects, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a representation of the compatibility of objects, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates more complex inputs and outputs of objects, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a display of a user interface, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of the interaction between two objects, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a user establishing a connectionbetween two objects, in accordance with an embodiment of an invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an overall architecture of an object interface in thecontext of the user's interaction with that interface, in accordancewith embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art thatthe invention may be practiced without these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits havenot been described in detail so as not to obscure the invention. Variousmodifications to the described embodiments will be apparent to thosewith skill in the art, and the general principles defined herein may beapplied to other embodiments. The invention is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments shown and described.

In current user interfaces, objects are often displayed as icons in anenvironment. For example, on an iPhone interface, each application isrepresented by an icon. These icons are forms of objects within a userinterface. Currently, users may move these objects around, rearrangethese objects within an environment, and interact with these objectsindividually and separately. Utilizing embodiments of the presentinvention, however, users may be able to interact with these objects(interactive objects or icons) in new and innovative ways. For example,users may “play with” or move the objects around such that the objectsinteract with each other. Users may bump objects together, or flick oneobject or icon into another object. Users may rearrange objects andplace objects on top of each other or into each other, or even on adock. The objects may be “thrown” to a dock, bounced off one another,connected with one another, bounced off the edge of the screen, etc. Asthe users interact with objects, the objects may react such that certainevents are triggered by the users' actions.

Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a decision tree of the interaction ofobjects is shown, in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Auser may interact with an object in a number of ways. In one embodiment,a user may bump two objects together, flick one object into anotherobject, or place one object on top of another object. In each of thesesituations, the objects may either interact with each other or have acertain action or not (101). If the objects do not interact or have noaction, then they are considered neutral towards each other (102).Neutral may mean that when two objects are bumped together or flickedinto one another, nothing happens. If the objects are able to interact,then they may either repel each other or attract to one another (103).If the objects are not compatible (as discussed in more detail below),then they may repel one another. For example, two social networkingobjects such as a Facebook application object and a Twitter applicationobject might repel. These two objects might repel to ensure that thereis enough distance between them so that a third object may be easilyflicked towards either the Facebook application object or the Twitterapplication object.

If the objects, on the other hand, are compatible for interaction, theymay either establish a connection or link to one other for asubscription based interaction (or a longer period of interaction) orthey may engage in a one-time or limited interaction (105). If it is asubscription-based interaction, the two objects may establish aconnection (106) in which they are able to communicate or broadcastcontent to one another for some pre-determined period of time orperpetually. If it is a one-time or limited interaction, then the twoobjects may share or communicate certain content at that instance (107).For example, if a user flicks a content object (such as a picture,video, etc.) onto the Facebook application object (icon), then theFacebook application could post the content to the user's Facebook pageor wall. In this case, Facebook would attract content, and the contentwould have a one-time interaction with the Facebook object.

In one embodiment, in addition to attracting or repelling one another,two objects may also orbit each other. For example, a social networkingapplication object could orbit a Community object. The social networkingapplication object may be a submenu and the Community object may be thetop menu. In this example, an object that orbits another object is asubmenu of the object that it is orbiting. In another situation, whentwo objects are connected, sharing content, or otherwise linked, one ofthose objects may orbit the other object. There may be various othersituations in which objects may orbit one another.

In another example, a user may bump a game application object againsttheir Twitter application object (or to their Facebook applicationobject or other social networking object). Instead of bumping the twoicons together, the user could also flick one to another, or place oneatop of another, or any other action that causes triggers an interactionbetween the two objects. If the Twitter application object is capable ofcommunicating with the game application object, then the two objects (orcontent modules) could establish a connection or link that allows themto communicate with each other or share content until the objects aredisconnected. The objects may be disconnected by the user or after somepre-defined period of time. When connected, for example, achievements inthe game object may be automatically broadcast via the social networkingobject that the user has connected the game object to. Thus, content (orachievements) from one application could automatically be shared virallyand socially through the other application, which may be a socialnetworking application object (or through all of the user's socialnetworking accounts that the user chooses to “connect”). It may bepossible for an object to establish connections or engage in one-timeinteractions with one or more other objects. It may also be possiblethat various objects cannot or are not set up to interact with eachother.

In yet another example, two social networking objects could beconnected. For example, the Facebook application object and the Twitterapplication object may be connected, so that whatever the userbroadcasts or posts to Facebook is automatically posted and broadcastedvia the Twitter application as well, and vice versa. When connected, thetwo social networking objects may share content, postings and updates.

FIG. 2 illustrates a representation of the compatibility of objects inaccordance with embodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2,whether or not objects are able to interact with each other may bedefined by predetermined variables. Certain objects may be able toprovide content or send messages or other communication to certain otherobjects, and certain other objects may be able to receive content orreceive messages or other communication from certain other objects. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2, object A1 may be able to receivecommunication only from other objects like object A2. These objectsmight “speak the same language” or use the same variables or types ofcontent that are able to be shared with one another.

On object A1, the triangle shaped inputs 101 represent the kinds ofinputs, content, communication, etc. that an object may be able toreceive, and the triangle shaped outputs 102 represent the types ofoutputs, content, communication, etc. that object A1 is able to provideto other objects. Thus, object A1 may send output to other objects thatare able to receive triangle-type inputs like 101. Similarly, object Bcan only communicate its outputs with objects like object C who are ableto receive circle-type inputs like 103 or 104. And object D may onlycommunicate its outputs or receive inputs from and with other objectslike itself. The shapes of the inputs and outputs represent the types ofmessages, communication, content, etc. that are used by each of theapplications (objects) within an interface.

When two objects, such as A1 and A2, or B and C have compatible inputsand outputs, then they are able to establish either a one-time orlonger-term connection so that they may interact with one another. Twoobjects that have compatible inputs and outputs may attract one other,whereas two objects that do not have compatible inputs and outputs, suchas object B and object D may repel one another. When a user thus placesobject B on top of object C, or bumps object B and C together, or flicksobject B to object C or flicks object C to object B, then those twoobjects will interact and something will happen, such as the sharing ofcontent, for example. When a user places object B on top of object D, orbumps object B and D together, or flicks object B to object D, they mayeither repel, or they may do nothing, depending on how incompatiblethese two objects are.

Referring to FIG. 3, more complex inputs and outputs of object areshown, in accordance with embodiments of the invention. As shown in FIG.3, an object such as object A may be compatible with objects that areunlike itself. For example, while object A may have outputs that areable to communicate with other objects that are able to receive inputsthat are triangle-shaped, it may only be able to receive inputs fromother objects that have circle-shaped outputs. Thus, in FIG. 3, object Amay establish a connection or have a one-time interaction with object E,as the output of object E 302 is compatible with the input of object A.Further, object E may also be able to establish a connection or have aone-time interaction with object C, as the output of object E 302 iscompatible with the input of object C 303. Object C may also be able tocommunicate, establish a connection with, or have a one-time interactionwith object A, as the input of object C 303 is compatible with theoutput of object A 304. Each object may be a content receiver orconsumer or a content producer or both, and depending on whether thecontent is compatible, the objects may be able to interact.

As shown by object C, an object may have inputs that can receivemultiple types of other object outputs. Similarly, as shown by object D,an object may have outputs that may be compatible with various types ofother object inputs. For example, object D's outputs 305 may becompatible with the inputs of object A 301, object B 307, object C 303,and object F 306. Object A's outputs 304 may be compatible with objectC's inputs 303 and object F's inputs 306, but depending on the strengthof the compatibility, the objects may attract each other more or less.For example, object D's inputs 309 may be strongly attracted to objectC's outputs 310 because they are highly compatible, and these objectsmay gravitate towards one another within the interface. In contrast,object F's outputs 311 may be highly incompatible with object B's inputs307, and object B's outputs 312 may be highly incompatible with objectF's inputs 306, so these two objects may repel each other.

Object E may have a universal input 308 such that it may accept outputsfrom all types of objects. For example, object E may be a Dock object(as described further below) that is able to attract or be attracted toany object.

Referring to FIG. 4, an example of a display of a user interface isshown, in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Various objects401, 402, 403, 404, 405, A, B, 1, 2, 3 may be available to the user tointeract with. The user may drag and drop these objects onto one other,bump these objects into each other, bump them off of the edge of thescreen, flick them towards one another, etc. Various objects may beexpanded or condensed. For example, expanding the photos object 403might reveal several other objects within the photos object 403. Thephotos object 403 might represent a stack of other objects or icons thatmay be displayed and interacted with similar to a deck of cards, forexample. A pile of objects may be swapped and displayed and interactedwith using multi-touch interface features. For example, a user may useone finger as an anchor point and another finger to reveal each objectwithin the pile of objects. By flicking the photos object 403, or anobject (such as an individual photo or some subset of photos) within thephotos object 403, to another object, such as the community object 401,the user might find that the photos object 403 (or the object within thephotos object 403) is compatible with the community object 401, and byflicking the objects or bumping them together, the user's selectedphoto(s) are shared in the community 401.

In another example, if there is featured content 405 that isinteresting, a user could flick or move it on top of the communityobject 401 to feature that content to other members of the user'scommunity. Or, the user could take content within the videos object 402and flick it into the featured 405 object to feature that content. Theuser may establish connections or links between the featured object 405and their photos object 403, for example, to establish a link betweenthe two to share content. The connection or link may be established fora certain period of time, or may persist until the user disconnects thetwo objects. In some situations, the connection may be establishedpermanently.

Each object (or content) may also have a natural “home” and the objectmay gravitate towards that “home” at all times. Or, the object maysimply return to its natural “home” when the user is finishedinteracting with that object. For example, the “home” of a certain photoof a user could be the Photos object 403. Or the “home” of a Facebookapplication object may be the Community object 401. Different objects orcontent may have different “homes” which may be a Community object 401,a Videos object 402, a Photos object 403, a Games object 404, a Featuredobject 405, or a Dock 406. Users may drag certain objects to a Dock 406,where they can be easily accessed by the user. The Dock may haveuniversal inputs (or in other words, accept inputs from all types ofobjects), so that any type of object may be attracted to the Dock. Whena user throws an object, such as Object A onto the Dock 406, the objectwill be easily accessible by the user from the Dock 406. When an objectis placed in the Dock 406, the Dock may become the objects new “home.”

Referring to FIG. 5, a user may bump two objects together, such as aCommunity object 501 and a Games object 502, to see if they willinteract, and if they do, whether they will attract or repel each other.In the case of a Community object 501 and a Games object 502, theobjects coming together may result in an action. The action may be thata user's Community profile picture within Community object 501 may beutilized in a game within a Games object 502. Or, a user may have, bycolliding the two objects, initiated a game within the Games object 502with another user within the Community object 501. Or, if someinformation is common between the two applications, such as a user'sprofile information, the two applications may share this information andthe information may be automatically populated from one application intoanother after the collision. The resulting action may be somewhatrandom, and the user may need to experiment and try bumping differentobjects together to see what happens. The result may be something new,novel and fun for the user. The goal may be to get the user interestedin exploring an enterprise's brand or environment. Or, the action may bespecific and intended by the user.

Referring to FIG. 6, a user may also connect two objects together, inaccordance with an embodiment of an invention. For example, two objects(or content modules) may be connected to one another so that theycommunicate with one another until they are disconnected. The user may,for example, use a two-finger flick, a pinch, or some other specificmotion to indicate that the user would like to connect two objectstogether. For example, a two-finger flick may indicate that the userwants to establish a connection while a one-finger flick could indicatethat the user would like the objects to engage in a one-timeinteraction. Alternatively, some objects may automatically establishsubscription-type connections by the type of object. A user maydisconnect the objects by some other manipulation, or the objects may bedisconnected automatically after some period of time. Some connectionsmay be permanent and irreversible. For example, the Games object 602 maybe connected to the Community object 601 such that any achievements madeby the user within the games played in the Games object 602 are postedto the user's communities within the Community object 601. In anotherembodiment, the Featured object 605 may be connected to a Communityobject 601 so that the featured content is shared through the user'ssocial networking accounts when logged in. Or, for example, a user'sprofile picture within the Community object 601 may be used as a hockeypuck in a hockey game within the Games object 602. In some embodiments,an object may be connected to more than one other object, or severalobjects may be grouped and connected to each other.

Different objects may also be “shared” to various social networks orother sites/actions represented within the “Share” object 606. Forexample, within the Share object 606, Facebook could be “1”, Twittercould be “2”, and Linked-In could be “3”. A photo within the Photosobject 604 may be dragged onto the “Share” object 606 to be shared andposted to these various social networks. For example, a photo within thePhotos object 604 may be dragged and dropped into the upper-right handcorner of the screen shown in FIG. 6 and dropped onto the Facebook (“1”)icon, and that photo would be posted to the user's Facebook wall, forexample.

Referring to FIG. 7, an overall architecture of an object interface 702is shown in the context of the user's interaction with that interface.Various enterprises 707 may utilize and create such interfaces 702 to beincorporated and used by users via certain user interfaces 701. Thedevices may be coupled to storage 704 and other processors 705. Theprocessors 705 may be located remotely from the user devices 709, andmay be accessible over a network such as the Internet 706. Thus, usersmay, via their user devices 709 access the user interface 701 over anetwork, or also locally as shown by user devices 710. The objectinterface 709 allows various objects to interact via behind-the scenesmapping of information to make the information compatible andtransferable between applications.

It is understood that when referring to mobile devices or mobileplatforms, various other types of programmable or touch screen devices,platforms and application frameworks may be utilized by embodiments ofthe present invention, including mobile phones (including iPhone OSbased devices, Android OS based devices, Windows mobile devices, SymbianOS and RIM OS, etc.), mobile consumer platforms (including iPod touch,Zune, PSP, Nintendo DS, etc.), tablet devices (including iPad, allWindows tablet edition devices, etc.), televisions (including SamsungSDK capable devices), “Smart Appliances” (including refrigerators,washing machines and any other appliances equipped with support forapplication development), automobiles and other vehicles equipped withsupport for application development, digital billboards and otheradvertisement based devices equipped with support for applicationdevelopment, and other programmable devices.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatsuch embodiments are provided by way of example only. Numerousvariations, changes, and substitutions will now occur to those skilledin the art without departing from the invention. It should be understoodthat various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention describedherein may be employed in practicing the invention. It is intended thatthe following claims define the scope of the invention and that methodsand structures within the scope of these claims and their equivalents becovered thereby.

While this invention has been described and illustrated with referenceto particular embodiments, it will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art that the scope of the invention is not limited to thedisclosed embodiments but, on the contrary, is intended to covernumerous other modifications and equivalent arrangements which areincluded within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

Aspects of the systems and methods described herein may be implementedas functionality programmed into any of a variety of circuitry,including programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), programmable array logic (PAL) devices,electrically programmable logic and memory devices and standardcell-based devices, as well as application specific integrated circuits(ASICs). Some other possibilities for implementing aspects of thesystems and methods include: microcontrollers with memory, embeddedmicroprocessors, firmware, software, etc. Furthermore, aspects of thesystems and methods may be embodied in microprocessors havingsoftware-based circuit emulation, discrete logic (sequential andcombinatorial), custom devices, fuzzy (neural network) logic, quantumdevices, and hybrids of any of the above device types. Of course theunderlying device technologies may be provided in a variety of componenttypes, e.g., metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)technologies like complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS),bipolar technologies like emitter-coupled logic (ECL), polymertechnologies (e.g., silicon-conjugated polymer and metal-conjugatedpolymer-metal structures), mixed analog and digital, etc.

It should be noted that the various functions or processes disclosedherein may be described as data and/or instructions embodied in variouscomputer-readable media, in terms of their behavioral, registertransfer, logic component, transistor, layout geometries, and/or othercharacteristics. Computer-readable media in which such formatted dataand/or instructions may be embodied include, but are not limited to,non-volatile storage media in various forms (e.g., optical, magnetic orsemiconductor storage media) and carrier waves that may be used totransfer such formatted data and/or instructions through wireless,optical, or wired signaling media or any combination thereof. Examplesof transfers of such formatted data and/or instructions by carrier wavesinclude, but are not limited to, transfers (uploads, downloads, email,etc.) over the Internet and/or other computer networks via one or moredata transfer protocols (e.g., TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc.). Whenreceived within a computer system via one or more computer-readablemedia, such data and/or instruction-based expressions of componentsand/or processes under the systems and methods may be processed by aprocessing entity (e.g., one or more processors) within the computersystem in conjunction with execution of one or more other computerprograms.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification,discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,”“calculating,” “determining,” or the like, may refer in whole or in partto the action and/or processes of a processor, computer or computingsystem, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/ortransform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantitieswithin the system's registers and/or memories into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities within the system's memories,registers or other such information storage, transmission or displaydevices. It will also be appreciated by persons skilled in the art thatthe term “users” referred to herein can be individuals as well ascorporations and other legal entities. Furthermore, the processespresented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer,processing device, article or other apparatus. An example of a structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.In addition, embodiments of the invention are not described withreference to any particular processor, programming language, machinecode, etc. It will be appreciated that a variety of programminglanguages, machine codes, etc. may be used to implement the teachings ofthe invention as described herein.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words ‘comprise,’ comprising,' and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of ‘including,but not limited to.’ Words using the singular or plural number alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. Additionally, thewords ‘herein,’ hereunder,“above,”below,' and words of similar importrefer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portionsof this application. When the word ‘or’ is used in reference to a listof two or more items, that word covers all of the followinginterpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of theitems in the list and any combination of the items in the list.

The above description of illustrated embodiments of the systems andmethods is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the systems andmethods to the precise form disclosed. While specific embodiments of,and examples for, the systems and methods are described herein forillustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possiblewithin the scope of the systems and methods, as those skilled in therelevant art will recognize. The teachings of the systems and methodsprovided herein can be applied to other processing systems and methods,not only for the systems and methods described above.

The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can becombined to provide further embodiments. These and other changes can bemade to the systems and methods in light of the above detaileddescription.

In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not beconstrued to limit the systems and methods to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construedto include all processing systems that operate under the claims.Accordingly, the systems and methods are not limited by the disclosure,but instead the scope of the systems and methods is to be determinedentirely by the claims.

While certain aspects of the systems and methods are presented below incertain claim forms, the inventor contemplates the various aspects ofthe systems and methods in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, theinventor reserves the right to add additional claims after filing theapplication to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects ofthe systems and methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device comprising a user interface forpicture or video sharing, comprising: a display screen comprising a userinterface that includes a first visual image and a second visual image,wherein the first visual image is associated with a picture or videofile stored in a memory on the mobile device, and wherein the secondvisual image is associated with a mobile application that is accessibleon the mobile device; and a computer processor coupled to the memorythat is programmed (i) to receive user input on the user interface toposition the first visual image on or in proximity to the second visualimage, and (ii) to initiate transfer or processing of the picture orvideo file on the mobile device by the mobile application if the mobileapplication is compatible with the picture or video file, or notinitiate the transfer or processing of the picture or video file on themobile device by the mobile application if the mobile application isincompatible with the picture or video file.
 2. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein the first visual image is associated with anothermobile application that is accessible by the user upon input from theuser on the first visual image.
 3. The mobile device of claim 2, whereinthe another mobile application is different from the mobile application.4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein on the user interface, thefirst and second visual images repel or attract each other based on thecompatibility of the mobile application with the picture or video file.5. The mobile device of claim 4, wherein the computer processor isprogrammed such that, if the mobile application is compatible with thepicture or video file, then the first image and second image attracteach other on the user interface, and the transfer or processing of thepicture or video file by the mobile application is initiated.
 6. Themobile device of claim 4, wherein the computer processor is programmedsuch that, if the mobile application is incompatible with the picture orvideo file, then the first image and second image repel or remainneutral with respect to each other on the user interface, and thetransfer or processing of the picture or video file by the mobileapplication is not initiated.
 7. The mobile device of claim 1, whereinthe first image and second image are icons.
 8. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein a position of each image within the user interface isuser selectable.
 9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the firstimage is a graphical depiction of the picture or video.
 10. The mobiledevice of claim 1, wherein the second image is a graphical depiction ofthe mobile application.
 11. The mobile device of claim 1, furthercomprising a graphical depiction of a link established between the firstimage and the second image.
 12. A device comprising a user interface forpicture or video sharing, comprising: a touch screen comprising a userinterface that includes a first image and a second image, wherein thefirst image is associated with a picture or video and the second imageis associated with an application that is accessible on the device uponuser input on the second image; and a computer processor coupled to thetouch screen and programmed to (i) receive user input on the userinterface to move the first image to the second image, and (ii) initiatethe transfer of the picture or video from the device to the applicationif the application is compatible with the picture or video, or notinitiate the transfer of the picture or video from the device to theapplication if the application is incompatible with the picture orvideo.
 13. The device of claim 12, wherein the first image is associatedwith another application that is accessible by the user upon input fromthe user on the first image.
 14. The device of claim 13, wherein theanother application is different from the application.
 15. The device ofclaim 12, wherein the computer processor is programmed such that, if theapplication is compatible with the picture or video, then the firstimage and second image attract each other on the user interface, and thetransfer of the picture or video from the mobile device to theapplication is initiated.
 16. The device of claim 12, wherein thecomputer processor is programmed such that, if the application isincompatible with the picture or video, then the first image and secondimage repel or remain neutral with respect to each other on the userinterface, and the transfer of the picture or video from the mobiledevice to the application is not initiated.
 17. The device of claim 12,wherein the first image and second image are icons.
 18. The device ofclaim 12, wherein a position of each image within the user interface isuser selectable.
 19. A device comprising a user interface for contentsharing, comprising: a display screen comprising a user interface thatincludes a plurality of images associated with applications that areaccessible on the device upon user input on a respective one of theplurality images, which applications include a first applicationassociated with a first image among the plurality of images and a secondapplication associated with a second image among the plurality ofimages; and a computer processor coupled to the display and programmedto (i) receive user input on the user interface to move the first imageto the second image, and (ii) initiate the transfer of content from thefirst application to the second application if the first application andsecond application are compatible, or not initiate the transfer ofcontent from the first application to the second application if thefirst application and second application are incompatible.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein the first application is different from thesecond application.
 21. The device of claim 19, wherein the first imageand second image are icons.
 22. The device of claim 19, wherein aposition of each image within the user interface is user selectable.